A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assignment.

After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,

I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This photo is of me selling a shovel.

As I sit here working, I am really cold. I don’t know why, it’s not that cold out (okay so it is that cold out – but not compared to how cold it has been). All day I have had this bone chilling cold feeling which I cannot shake even sitting here by the fire. So I made myself a cup of tea. As I was steeping the tea, I noticed the tea bag label had a saying on it:

The soul is projection. Represent it.

So – now in addition to my chilly feeling, I have to figure out what the heck that means. Why? Because it’s in my nature. It is a message put there for a reason — what is it?

This week’s schedule is all out of whack. The boys (2 of them) have midterms which means that they have 1/2 days and no school some days and a completely crazy schedule this week. What does this mean to me, you might ask? Well, it means that my days consist basically of mornings until Friday and then I might as well just take that day off and get some work around the house done instead since both of them are off.

It is cold here, hovering around zero. I was reading that last weekend was a problem for Vermont ski resorts because one of the mountains that does night skiing canceled its night skiing due to the cold. That somehow got translated by media in the states south of here that ski resorts in Vermont were closing because of the cold. Who heard of such a thing?!?? Vermonters aren’t afraid of a little cold (or a lot of cold for that matter) — just look at the way my kids (who aren’t even real Vermonters) dress to go outside. As my youngest son put it — it’s not even negative out, what are they talking about it’s cold?